Adrasteia
by Callicokitten
Summary: One shot. Draco Malfoy's daemon settles finally in their fifth year and it's causing quite a stir. Harry/Draco if you squint.


**AN: **a oneshot that wouldn't leave me alone!

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><p>When Harry gets down to the great hall that day for breakfast the students are buzzing with excitement. Neala, his hare daemon, is perched on his shoulders, her long ears twitching as she picks up random strands of daemon conversation.<p>

"Something's happened, Harry," she whispers, her whiskers tickling his ears. "Something big, not bad big, but interesting."

Harry nods and walks a little faster towards Ron and Hermione, already seated and having breakfast. Neala springs off his shoulder and runs to meet Ron's Kirek, a husky and Hermione's raven, Adrial.

"So what happened?" he asks as he sits down and piles his plate with bacon and eggs.

"Malfoy's daemons settled 'parently," Ron says thickly through a mouthful of toast.

Harry raises an eyebrow, they're in their fifth year and Malfoy's daemon has only just settled. Usually daemons have settled by the time their human is fourteen. Neala had settled when Harry was twelve, Kirek had settled during their first Christmas at Hogwarts in a snowball fight and Adrial had settled in the summer before their fourth year. So it's strange yes, but Harry's not really sure why it's caused such an uproar and judging by Hermione's disdainful look at Ron she doesn't either.

"Honestly, Ronald did no one teach you how to chew?" she says, in disgust. Then she turns to Harry, Adrial fluttering up to sit on her shoulder. "_I _really don't see what all the fuss is about. So what if his daemon took ages to settle, it's none of our business."

Ron swallows his mouthful and shoots her a dark look before saying, "I reckon his daemon has settled as something disgusting like him, like a cockroach or a centipede," he laughs, "Or maybe as a ferret."

Harry smiles and he has to admit he's a little intrigued but he's got bigger things to worry about right now then what Draco Malfoy's daemon has settled as so he shovels his breakfast into his mouth and hurries out of the hall with Ron and Hermione.

It's a Saturday so they don't have any lessons and at lunch Ron relays the news that no one (except presumably the Slytherins) has seen Malfoy yet and there are a million rumours about what his daemon actually is.

"You know," Hermione says disapprovingly. "For someone who hates Malfoy's guts you're awfully interested in him all of a sudden."

Kirek snaps playfully at Adrial and Ron says simply, "Come _on, _Hermione. You've got to be at least a _teeny _bit interested."

Hermione's cheeks colour slightly and she buries her nose deeper into her book. Ron laughs and Kirek smirks (as much as a dog can smirk) at Adrial and Harry and Neala realise that until they find out what Malfoy's daemon is they're never going to get any work done.

Luckily, they don't have to wait for long because Malfoy decides to grace them with his presence at dinner that night.

Ron and Harry are debating quidditch results and Hermione is absorbed in an extremely boring looking book about something called the Magisterium when a sudden hush falls across the hall. They all look up and realise that everyone is staring at paler then usual Draco Malfoy who is slinking into the hallway behind Blaise Zabini and his snake and Pansy Parkinson and her pug.

Harry blinks in surprise. Usually Draco's daemon, Adrasteia, is something elegant and white. An arctic wolf, an arctic fox, an ermine, a swan, a white tiger, a snow leopard. All regal and cold and snooty just like he is. But she's none of those things now.

Adrasteia is a phoenix. A huge, magnificent dark coloured phoenix. From a distant her feathers look jet black but as the Slytherins get closer Harry realises that her feathers are a multitude of different colours, like petrol on water only more beautiful. There are midnight blues and deep purples and metallic greens and they shouldn't work together but they do as one, liquidly dark colour and Harry thinks he could probably stare at Adrasteia all day and never count all the colours in her feathers.

"That's a little ironic, don't you think?" Ron mutters and Kirek nods in agreement.

Hermione is watching Draco and Adrasteia thoughtfully and Harry says, "She's beautiful," in a quiet, awed voice before he can stop himself.

Neala's racing heart tells him she agrees.


End file.
